Travel Diary Assignment

Travel journals make excellent family mementos. Get your kids started with these writing prompts and travel journal printables.

I wrote recently about why to keep a travel journal. Now I’d like to talk about how. Any old notebook or journal works but if you want to encourage kids to keep track of their travels, it makes sense to give them something a little more inspiring. At the end of a long travel day, writing about your day is hard for everyone, but especially for kids. Yet just like adults they will appreciate looking back at their memories later (plus it will help with those school writing assignments about “What I Did on my Vacation”!)

One thing I’ve learned from my daughter’s teacher is that writing is easier for kids if they are given a writing prompt. So I talked to my girl about what things she likes to put in her travel journals and what types of prompts might make it easier to keep a travel journal. With her input I put together the following kid travel journal printable pages–including a cover and two inside pages.

With this free kid travel journal printable cover, your child can personalize their journal with their name, indicate where on the map they are going, and record the dates of the trip.

Just click here to download the free PDF of the kid travel journal printable cover.

I’ve also put together two interior pages. Just print as many of these (double-sided if you can) for the number of days of your trip. The first page lets your child record the date and location and choose how they felt about the day (loved it, liked it, meh, ugh, tired, or sick.) Kids can also write about what they saw, the best thing they ate, where they stayed, and their favorite part of the day. There are also icons to select how they traveled (plane, train, car, taxi, subway, boat, bike or walking) and what the weather was like (hot, sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy, snowy or cold.)

The second interior page gives plenty of room to draw a picture that represents their day, to help those that are more visual than verbal. It also provides space to write about something they learned to keep track of all the amazing education that comes through travel like facts about a place they visited, a new word in a new language, or something about the culture you are visiting.

Click to download the PDF of the kid travel journal printable drawing page.

Before you leave just print out the number of pages you need and staple it, bind it, or put it in a pocket folder with room to save ticket stubs, programs, and more.

When on the road, don’t wait until the meltdown at bedtime to think about writing in journals. Stick it in your day bag along with some crayons and pencils and use it as a way to keep kids entertained while waiting to be served at restaurants or other downtime throughout the day.

Be sure to also check out my tips for raising a good traveler and ways to prepare your kids for vacation.

If you use these journal printables, I’d love to hear about how it worked out. Send me pictures or leave a comment below or on Facebook.

PIN THIS FOR LATER

If you want to make a travel journal or scrapbook, it’s more interesting to include photos and the stories behind the photos. You will have fun reliving the trip in the future if you record the stories now. Here are the first three of 27 Travel Journal Writing Prompts I guest-posted on the TravelScrap HQ website:

Write about your anticipation. What are you looking forward to most and least, before you go.

Save your packing list. List the items you are packing before you leave.

List the events of each travel day. Write in a journal a simple list of the events of the day.